Managing a Multi-Generational Workforce

Board members Ruth Bramson, David Creelman and I recently met to talk about the opportunities and challenges presented by the increasingly multi-generational workforce. The picture here makes fun of one particular cliche about Millennials, but there are differences between the generations in terms of their assumptions, preferences and beliefs about how work gets done.

When I talked to co-authors Meagan and Larry Johnson a couple of years ago, they reflected on the significance of the cultural events that shaped the beliefs of workers from different generations. Increasingly, attitudes toward technology have become another aspect of difference. The newest generation, still doesn’t have an agreed upon moniker or birthdate for that matter. Re-Gen,Gen Z,Pluralist & or Homelander are all in play. But they’ll start to enter the workplace soon and what we do know about them is that they’ve never known a world without smartphones and social media. Email? That’s what their parents use to communicate.

Tammy Erickson posits that there are four main dimensions on which the generations differ in the workplace:

Choosing where and when to work

Communicating among team members

Getting together; i.e. when/how to connect when collaboration is required